This is an introductory course set-up to
help practitioners develop a site plan for offering distance or blended
learning to the adult learners. It is
also a prerequisite for IDEAL 102: Instructional Issues or IDEAL Program
Administration.

Distance or blended
learning teachers who have some experience teaching online will spend four
weeks focusing on how to best support learners. Each participant develops a
case study describing an instructional challenge. Together the cohort discusses
each of the case studies, building a "community of practice" that
remains available as a resource after the course is done. Through the
discussion, each participant
arrives at a few ideas to pilot. After a month of piloting, each teacher
reports on their success in a webinar.

This course is for program managers who have had some experienced with
distance or blended learning. The class is built around relevant articles and
developing a case study, which the class discusses. It is an opportunity for
program managers to share insight and information with each other. Through interaction
with assigned literature and discussion of their case studies, each participant
arrives at a few ideas to pilot to solve the issue described in the case
study. After a month of piloting they
report back on their success in a webinar. Participants will also have the
opportunity to gather information and develop narrative text that they can use
in grant applications and state reporting.

Blended learning and distance teachers with some prior experience will spend four weeks learning about how to evaluate online resources for using in distance and blended learning. Through several
readings and discussion, the cohort will create a rubric for future resource evaluation and then pilot its use with one new learning resource they hope to integrate into their online instruction.